


Men Are From Mars But Sandburg Is In His Own Little World

by maaaaa



Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:07:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23634328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maaaaa/pseuds/maaaaa
Kudos: 7





	Men Are From Mars But Sandburg Is In His Own Little World

“Ask out and take out are not the same thing,” Blair said patiently.

“Huh,” Jim replied noncommittally, enjoying the fact that he’d managed to steer the conversation away from the starting point.

Discussing Blair’s theory on a Sentinel’s drive to perpetuate his genes as it related to Jim’s dating record wasn’t exactly what he’d had on the agenda for the evening’s dinner topic. He’d glibly tossed out a few carefully condescending words about the volume of women Blair took out and the goober had taken the bait hook, line, and sinker.

“Just because I ask a woman to go out with me doesn’t mean she’ll say yes, so the number of women I ask out is not the same as the number of women I take out,” Blair added helpfully. He scrunched his eyebrows thoughtfully. “Right? And the number of women I ask out is contingent on the number of women I meet or encounter in one way or another over a given period of time.”

“Oh?” Jim remarked. His own brows tightened a bit. He slid a forkful of salad into his mouth and tilted his head a fraction, which produced the desired effect of encouraging Blair to expand on his defensive exposition.

“Okay. So. Let’s say I meet, oh, a hundred women in one month---,” Blair continued after coming up for air and gulping a few mouthfuls of salad.

“A hundred,” Jim commented, sounding doubtful. He eyed the dribble of salad dressing that missed Blair’s mouth and left slobbery little blotches on his chin and the front of his shirt.

“Ranier’s a big campus. Cascade’s a huge city. I’m a busy guy. Work with me here, Jim. If you think about it, a hundred is not out of the realm here. Now out of the hundred, there are going to be some that are in the wrong age bracket, some married, some engaged, some way outta my league, some not into guys. And then there’s the whole attraction thing. And I don’t just mean looks. Not that looks don’t come into play, but there’s more to attraction than looks, right? So now there’s maybe about twenty women left that I’d even consider asking out.”

“Twenty. That’s still a pretty fair amount to go out with in a month,” Jim goaded, smirking just a bit. He prodded the air with his fork as he looked up at the ceiling, making a show of doing math calculations as if multiplying. “So in six months---,”

“Going out with someone is not the same as taking someone out. Stay with me here, Jim,” Blair replied. He pointedly ignored Jim’s abstract ciphering.

Jim’s head dropped back down and he peered across the table at Blair. “What?” Not a question really.

“Going out is like what you do after class. Like, ‘Let’s grab some coffee’, or ‘Let’s take in that lecture over at the museum’. Right? Taking out is going the whole planning route. Call her up, ask her would she like to go to dinner, see a movie, set a day and time. You know, more structured. More expectations.”

Blair hastily shoveled in a few mouthfuls of lasagna as Jim tried to absorb what he’d just said.

“It’s not like I ask out all twenty,” Blair said, his voice losing some of its recent enthusiasm. “It’s just what the field has been narrowed down to.” He shrugged and fiddled with his fork, mashing the meat sauce on his plate. “I might get up the nerve to ask five or six, and if I’m lucky one or two might say yes, so the number I ask out and the number I take out aren’t the same.”

His words glided slowly to a stop, left hanging in the air.

“Awww, Chief,” Jim consoled, suddenly feeling like a heel.

Blair shrugged again, slumped in his chair, and smiled crookedly.

“Dating’s a real bitch, huh?” Jim commiserated.

Blair straightened immediately and his eyes lit up. “Dating is so not the same as taking someone out---,”

Jim just shook his head and settled in for dessert.


End file.
